Carousel

We took the kids downtown to the Riverfront park today. They rode bikes (well, Haddon was pushed around on his), played at the playground, and rode the carousel. Here are some pics (that I snapped with my phone) from the carousel portion:

Norah is Four

Norah turned four yesterday, and we had a party for her at Pietro's Pizza. Here's what went down:



Here's the singing of the song and blowing out the candles (which I missed when I went to film Haddon, who was being funny):

Here's the birthday cake, courtesy of Kelly's mom. Norah asked, "Can I keep those toys on there?"

Norah had been wanting an umbrella. She's a true Californian by birth:
A Barbie doll from Grandma and Grandpa Lute. Norah had seen this on TV commercials and wanted it because you can cut her hair:

Norah was probably most excited for this gift, a toy cat that she can decorate (which she did first thing this morning):

Norah's been really into Fairies lately. Here's one of the dolls she got. She looks very excited, and so do I for some reason:

Here's a new hat she got from her cousins:

Haddon was there too:


Back at home, we spread out all the gifts in the living room and the kids went a little crazy. It took them a while to get to bed, and they ended up melting down today. But they sure were excited last night:

All in all, it was a fun night. Norah received a lot of nice gifts, and she had a lot of fun too. She is blessed to have good friends and family. It's too bad her friends from Colorado couldn't be there this year, but hopefully this helps to give an idea of what went on.

Growing Kids

Today, with it being Spring Break and me being off work, Norah and I decided to get the bikes back out and go for a little ride. After getting the bikes out of storage and pumping the tires back up, we noticed that Norah's seat needed to be raised 4-5 inches or so. Also, her helmet was a little tight, but it wasn't too bad. Then Haddon wanted to ride in the seat on the back of my bike. To get him in, we had to let the straps out a few inches. His helmet (which is Norah's old one, and is pink) is also a little small now.

These kids never stop growing. It hasn't even been 5 months since we last used the bikes, and they're so much bigger now. Norah especially is getting to be really tall. It will be interesting to get her into the doctor soon and find out what her height percentile is. Today I took her to the store and ran into some old friends. I told them that Norah was 3 years old and would be 4 really soon, and they were surprised, thinking she would be older than that.

Also, the bike ride was interesting. There is a steep hill up to our driveway, and Norah couldn't make it up, so I told her I would go park my bike up at the top and come back down to help her. Even so, she tried to go it alone and managed to crash her bike. She started crying, so I hurried Haddon out of his seat and went to get Norah, only I parked my bike on a sloped surface and it fell over on top of him, so we ended up with two crying kids. Fortunately, Kelly came out at that point and we managed to get things all fixed and get the kids inside.

Jewelry

Today, I looked down at my necklace, and said, "Oh no!" For what I saw was that the opal from the pendant had come out of its setting. This is a necklace that I had received from my parents-in-law when they returned from Australia a few years ago.

Norah was very concerned, and a few minutes later, after I had found the stone and placed the necklace up for repair, she came to me and said, "Here mom. You can have this jewelry."

There before me, my little girl held up one of her play necklaces.

Bye-bye?

Sometimes Haddon just gets an idea in his head, and I wasn't too sure what he was thinking yesterday evening. But we figured it out pretty quick.

It started with socks. He tugged and pulled, but just couldn't get them on. So mommy helped. Step 1: finished.

Then he grabbed his shoes. Struggling and fighting, and thinking about the function of Velcro- he did it! Step 2: finished.

Over to our makeshift coat closet he goes. And down comes my red jacket. "Ta-da!" he exclaims. Step 3: finished.

Now over to mommy for some help. Push those long sleeves up, and zip. Finally hood on. Step 4: finished.

The result.

Off to the door he ran, that is after he attempted to bring me my shoes. He as ready to go! But we stopped this as it was dark, and definitely not the time to leave. But cute as the whole process was, we needed a picture.

Norah felt left out. After all, she's cute too!

The End.

What Norah Says

Norah has been pretty funny lately. I just wanted to share some of her antics...

My mom told me this one. While riding in her van, it was silent. So Norah, being the polite conversationalist, thought of a topic, "My dad calls me Ninkus Stinkus." Laughter ensued.

In another story with my mom, we had her over for dinner for her birthday. Norah had spilled water or food or something on her shirt. So she was shirtless for part of the meal. I noticed her observing her chest intently, and then she looks up and says, "Mom, what are these for?!" Again, laughter ensued.

Other quotables include:
"Mom, I feel woggly." (aka. dizzy)
"Mom, your Zickle is up." (One of Haddon's many nicknames, taken from his first sounds, "zickle, zickle")
"It's okay, sweetie" (speaking to her brother, talking like mommy)
"Oh no! Haddon's taking his diaper off!" (Self-explanatory)

She calls marshmallows "mushrooms"- How weird is it to see your child eating Lucky Charms and say, "Look mom! Another mushroom"?!

There are others, and maybe Casey can chime in with some because my brain is drained for now. But this child of ours has been cracking us up lately.

Fit in that Box!

Today we got out some under-the-bed storage totes to try and do some organizing, and Haddon decided to get inside. See: